University of Newcastle (Australia)

Dreaming

This is a one page version of the Virtual Sourcebook for Aboriginal Studies in the Hunter Region site listing all sources from 1791 to the present. It was originally created to assist the Awaba project, a collaborative venture by the University of Newcastle’ s School of Liberal Arts and the Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies. The original brief was to digitise the works of Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld, but we continued to identify materials from the collections relating to Aboriginal people throughout Newcastle and the wider Hunter Region. Due to the assistance of scholars and members of the local indigenous and non indigenous community the site grew rapidly to include many hundreds of sources. We hope that this will lead to a better understanding and respect of the richness and beauty of the Aboriginal view.

The following documents are mostly in PDF format. If you do not already have it, you will need to download and install the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view these files. If you are having trouble viewing the files through your web browser try downloading the document to your computer. This is done by right mouse-clicking on the link and then choose ‘Save Target As’. Then, pick a location on your computer and click ‘OK’. The files will be downloaded to your computer. Please bear in mind that some are large files, and so may take some time to download depending upon your connection.

For an introduction to the historical materials relating to the Aboriginal people of the Newcastle/Lake Macquarie region, see the Awaba project, prepared by the University’s School of Liberal Arts and the Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies.

In 1791 a group of nine convicts and two small children escaped from the settlement at Sydney Cove. They successfully managed to avoid capture in a leaky boat before arriving in Timor, where they were arrested and re-imprisoned. Of the three accounts of the voyage known to exist, only one has ever come to light. It was the account attributed to James Martin, entitled ‘Memorandoms’. The writer(s) records the journey of the escapees up the coast to Swansea and later to what is possibly either Newcastle or (more likely) Port Stephens.

1801

Grant’s Voyage to Hunter’s River

In June 1801 Governor King sent an exploration party to the Hunter’s River led by Lieutenant Grant and Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson. Their mission was to report on “where the most eligible place would be to form a settlement, both with respect to procuring coals and for agricultural purposes”. Their report informed the Governor of the alluvial flats as being “a very fit situation for forming a settlement for the cultivation of grain or grazing”. They also reported on the presence of oyster shells along the beaches as well as good quality timber along the river. A small party were left behind to mine the coal at the present site of Newcastle, but due to the misconduct of a commanding officer the small settlement that had been working the seams was abandoned in 1802. Among their reports are observations of Aboriginal people.

Note: When reading the following accounts from Grant’s voyage please be aware that they confused the rivers with one another and “regarded the Williams as the main stream and refer to it as the Hunter in their reports. The Hunter upstream from its confluence with the Williams they named the Paterson. Although the confluence of the (present) Paterson and Hunter was shown on their map, they did not explore the Paterson.” (From T.M. Perry Australia’s First Frontier: The Spread of Settlement in New South Wales 1788 – 1829. Melbourne University Press, 1963 p.56 note 8)

24th June 1801 – Ensign Barrallier to Governor King. (King Papers) Historical Records of New South Wales, V.4 Ed. by F.M. Bladen Sydney, 1896: 413-414. [Transcription and Translation from the French by Emeritus Professor Ken Dutton] Describes the terrific waves around Nobbys and the entrance to the Harbour. He mentions a map (that is now lost) but that could possibly this one recently located by Doug Lithgow in the State Library of NSW.

R. v. Lowe. Supreme Court of New South Wales. Forbes C.J. and Stephen J., 18 May 1827. Source: Australian, 23 May 1827. Nathaniel Lowe, a Lieutenant in his Majesty’s 40th regt. was indicted for the wilful murder of a black named Jackey Jackey, alias Commandant, alias Jeffery, at Wallis’s Plains, in the month of August 1826.[Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899. Published by the Division of Law Macquarie University].

Title: Index and directory to map of the country bordering upon the River Hunter ; the lands of the Australian-Agricultural Company, with the ground plan and allotments of King’s Town, New South Wales : containing a detail of the annual quit rent and amount of the redemption of the same ; also historical notes upon the tenure and principle of granting lands in the colony since 1810 ; also for the guidance of emigrant settlers, a description of the unlocated country in the vicinity of Hunter’s River ; useful geographical notes on Liverpool Plains ; the present regulations and conditions upon which grants and sales of land are made by government, with observations thereon, with a view of the present state of agriculture in the colony, price of land, advice to settlers, &c. the whole forming with regard to land affairs in that colony, a complete emigrant’s guide / by H. Dangar

This original manuscript Journal of the Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld covers the period from December 1828 to circa February 1846 and is now lost. As it begins on page 63, it presumably formed part of a series of Journal diaries. It originally was inthe possession of an owner in Cattai. Prior to his death, the manuscript was lent to Mrs Raven, who then lent it to the Mitchell Library who digitised it. The Journal was then returned to the owner. After his death the manuscript disappeared and every avenue of locating it pursued by Mrs Raven has come to no avail causing great concern for the fate of such an important historical document to Hunter Region and Australian history.

We sincerely thank Mrs Marjorie Raven, great grand daughter of the late Reverend Threlkeld for her permission to publish this important Journal.

[September 2008 Update] Mrs Raven recently located a number of missing leaves from the manuscript which she copied and sent to us to incorporate into into the online manuscript. The missing pages are 154-161 and 267-268. There are an additional two pages placed at the end of the manuscript.

Raymond, James (Compiler). The New South Wales Calendar and General Post Office Directory, 1832.

Please see excerpt for description of Great North Road, Branch of the Great North Road leading through Wollombi, through Maitland to the Williams River, Port Stephens, the Manning and Port Macquarie, Road from Wollarobba to Upper William and Chichester Rivers, Road from Newcastle through Maitland to Great North Road at Patrick’s Plains and Road from Brisbane Water to Maitland. pp.124 – 154 Click here for PDF version (840KB) Mentions Aboriginal place names.

1833

Contains 94 pages of exerpts relating to the flora and fauna of Newcastle, Maitland and the Hunter Region with many references to Aboriginal people and descriptions of the landscape. Chapter 2 pp. 86 – 137 and Chapter 4 pp. 186 – 299.

Breton, William Henry, d.1887. Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia and Van Diemen’s Land, during the years 1830, 1831, 1832, and 1833 by Lieut. Breton. London : Richard Bentley, 1833. Cultural Coll/RB AUROUSS 994.02/174

1834

Lang, John Dunmore, 1799-1878. An historical and statistical account of New South Wales, both as a penal settlement and as a British colony / by John Dunmore Lang. London : Cochrane and M’Crone, 1834.Vol. 2 Chapter 2 pp. 85-126. (3.84 MB PDF) or (0.99MB PDF OCR version) [Coquun-Hunter River Site]

R. v. Jackey. Source: Australian, 6 May 1834. An aboriginal native named Jacky Jacky, committed to take trial for the murder of a white man at Mr. Mossman’s farm on Williams’s River. [Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899. Published by the Division of Law Macquarie University]

1835

R. v. Monkey and others. Supreme Court of New South Wales. Burton J., 11 February 1835. Source: Sydney Herald, 12 February 1835. Aboriginal Natives arraigned for a burglary in the dwelling-house of Mr. Alfred Hill Jaques. of Brisbane Water. Rev. Mr. Threlkeld, of Lake Macquarie, Missionary to the Aborigines, was sworn as interpreter. [Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899. Published by the Division of Law Macquarie University]

1841

Awaba or Lake Macquarie in 1841. This is a historical chart or map of Lake Macquarie with geological locations marked including Aboriginal place names. The database says that the outline was sketched by W. Procter from his examination in August 1841 and base printed by W. Baker Lithographer, King Street Sydney. Extensive notes were possibly made by the Reverend W. B. Clarke regarding rock outcrops and the location of fossils.

1842

Mann, J. F. [Manuscript] Aboriginal Names by J.F. Mann. [PDF DOWNLOAD] State Library of New South Wales. According to Dr Jim Wafer the manuscript is undated, but consists of a vocabulary of the Hunter River-Lake Macquarie language collected by J.F. Mann at Brisbane Water in 1842.

Tindale’s “Aboriginal Tribes”, under Geawegal says: “Northern tributaries of the Hunter River to Murru-rundi; at Muswellbrook, Aberdeen, Scone, and Mount Royal Range. Affiliated with the coastal Worimi. The grammar and vocabulary published by Hale (1845), following Threl-keld (1834), relates principally to this tribe. The ascription of it to Kamilaroi by Hale is an unexplained error, although the languages are closely related. Hale indicated the dominance of unvoiced consonants in the two languages he studied, hence the best spelling of this tribal name could well be Keawekal or Keawaikal (‘no sayers’).”

1878

1880

“Appendix G: The Gaewe-gal Tribe” of Kamilaroi and Kurnai : group-marriage and relationship, and marriage by elopement, drawn chiefly from the usage of the Australian aborigines : also the Kurnai tribe, their customs in peace and war / by Lorimer Fison and A.W. Howitt ; with an introduction by Lewis H. Morgan. Melbourne : George Robertson, 1880. pp.279 – 284. (583 KB PDF)

Brayshaw, Helen C. Some Aspects of the Material Culture of the Aborigines of the Hunter Valley at the Time of First White Settlement in the Area. Thesis Submitted as part of the Requirements for an Honours Degree in History, 1966. [Courtesy of Dr Helen C. Brayshaw]

1992

Raven, Marjorie. Rev. Lancelot Edward Threlkeld. We sincerely thank Mrs Marjorie Raven, great grand daughter of the late Reverend Lancelot Threlkeld for her permission to publish her biographical article prepared in August 1992.

2000

Maynard, John. Whose Traditional Land? Yutilliko (Awobokal -“To Guide”) [Report to ascertain the traditional owners of the land now occupied by the Callaghan Campus of the University of Newcastle]. [Wollotuka site]

2002

AWABA An electronic database and guide to the history, culture and language of the Aboriginal peoples of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie region of NSW. Awaba is the product of collaboration between the University’s School of Liberal Arts and Wollotuka School of Aboriginal Studies, in partnership with representatives of the Awabakal Aboriginal community.

For the theoretical background relating to the digital capture of such imagery please see the paper by Sabry El-Hakim (2006) and Chandler et al (2007 below. These illustrative ground breaking 3D innovative materials have been kindly provided with permission from Emeritus Professor John Fryer.

2005

Brayshaw, Helen. (2005). “On Revisiting Gundy: a meeting of history and archaeology”. From Many exchanges : archaeology, history, community and the work of Isabel McBryde / edited by Ingereth Macfarlane with Mary-Jane Mountain and Robert Paton, Section 2, Chapter 20, 2005, pp. 227-248 File size : 752.79 KB